And we may have "a more influential role at the top table"

Read more: Will Trump’s security proposals be resisted? Look at the history

If President-Elect Donald Trump is really the belligerent isolationist of his campaign rhetoric, then the United Kingdom’s national security is in a very difficult and potentially dangerous place. The two pillars on which our national safety rests are membership of the Nato alliance and a close partnership with the US which covers the full range of our defence, intelligence and security capabilities. Trump has been disparaging about Nato and until his foreign policy and national security teams are appointed we do not know what importance he will give to the “Special Relationship.”

That relationship is looking tarnished. Barack Obama’s comments about Brexit Britain going to the back of the US’s trade negotiation queue, even if they were prompted by Cameron or Osborne, were hardly the considered words of someone who believed in the relationship come what may.

There is no going back now, whatever the gainsayers may think. We are therefore entering a period of great uncertainty and profound change—but once the noxious atmosphere of the presidential campaign is dispersed and most of the uncertainties diminished through indications of new policies and appointments to the next administration, Trump may actually turn out to be good for the United Kingdom’s safety.

Trump’s primary populis…

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Comments

John Doyle

November 26, 2016 at 10:44

For me , We need Trump to moderate the anti Russian rhetoric emanating from Washington. It's a "methinks it doth protest too much" stance and Washington has much to hide in its Middle East interference, and again with Ukraine. Just imagine is the US had hostile bases surrounding it, 15 minutes by ICBM range. The protests would be massive. [See Cuba in 1962] So ther is one rule for the us and another for everyone else. This just makes the US look aggressive, not Russia.
Let's hope Trump gets sense to prevail!

James Q.

November 27, 2016 at 20:33

Who is hostile to Russia? There may be differences in political outlook, but NATO is not in a hostile position. The changes in troop positions and missile DEFENCE systems are mainly as a result of Putin's foreign policy decisions and legitimate concerns of NATO nations for their security. The Great Game of yesteryear is alive in Russian positioning in Syria. Putin will spin any line to look good with his compatriots and allies, but acquiescing to authoritarianism or saying nothing in the face of creeping threats to neighbours and allies hardly seems to be the self-styled way of the US - the leader of the free world. If Trump sense is to abandon the principles of US foreign policy over the last 70 years, then something else will fill the vacuum...and probably something far less benign.

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